There was this blues legend who taught me some amazing lessons. Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. He would say, in his own way, "You gotta learn to take the bittah with the fweet, boy." I was like, "What? The fweet?" Years later, it all made sense. There's a price on every doggie in the window. You want to be president? Senator? Governor? A rock star? The leading actor? Here's what's going to come with that.

If a polka song were number one on iTunes, trust me, the executives at half the companies would be trying to make that same polka record themselves.

Don't tell me we've run out of ideas. As long as we're alive, we've got to be able to put a new wrinkle on something.

Marvin Gaye didn't care what James Brown or the Jefferson Airplane was doing.

My dad's thing was, You know the thing you really know? That you never ever know.

At every stage of your life, you know everything. At twelve, you've got it sussed out. At sixteen, you couldn't tell me anything. Twenty-one, I knew it all. Hadn't lived it, but I knew it. You think you've got a lock on it at thirty. After a while, though, you realize what my dad said was completely true. You never ever know.

My mom's thing was, Shower them with love. Maybe that will turn the tide.

Want what you need. As opposed to wanting what you want. You may not need what you want, but you want it anyway. If you can turn your wants into your needs, you can do anything.

A wizard is never too early, never too late. A wizard only appears at the precise time.

People talk about music being in the toilet right now, you know, records aren't selling. Well, I don't think you could have Adele at any other time. She is so different from everybody on the charts. When it looks like the chips are down is when you can be your most creative.

As soon as you tell me no, guess what's going to happen.

Look how long ago Marvin Gaye wrote "What's Going On." And how it mirrors our times.

When people feel like they need to save mankind, you'll see great songs.

When we started Idol, Simon and I lived by this phrase: If you dish it out, you've got to be able to take it back. If you say that was awful, somebody may come back at you. I don't really care, because I've got pretty thick skin. But back when I was heavy, I remember somebody saying, "Well, you're fat!" And I said, "Yo, I got mirrors. You don't think I know?"

I was up to 355 pounds. It was all about good eatin'. I come from Louisiana. Baton Rouge. But you live in denial some, don't you? I let myself go like that? Really? I had to get a grip on it. I did when I was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes.

I'm at a place where I can do the morsel diet. I can have a little piece of that biscuit.

Once again, bittah with the fweet. You can't have food taste that good without having the calories. People will say it can be good without this or that. But that's a lie. It tastes better when there's butter on the biscuit.

Happiness is my kids, my wife, my friends, my music. And tennis.

Doing an interview is a checkup of sorts.

You hear that silly phrase that music soothes the savage in all of us. It's really true. Could you imagine a world without music? You think there are wars now. Oh, my God.